1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a business monitoring system and method, and more particularly concerns a business monitoring system and method suitable for a supervisor to automatically obtain necessary information without interrupting staff or a section in charge of performing business process, and further deals with a business monitoring and supporting system and method thereof.
2. Description of the Prior Art
In order for a supervisor of an organization to make a decision, he has to obtain results of business processes made by his related staff and make a judgment on the basis of the information. For the purpose, this supervisor desires to properly and conveniently obtain information such as, for example, contents of transactions and the order situation of specific goods.
On the other hand, a staff member who has to provide the information lowers his efficiency when he reports his own business process to his supervisor. In a conventional manner, therefore, the supervisor directs items to be reported to the staff aurally or in writing, and the staff reports to the supervisor only the specific business process in that regard.
Recently, computers have been increasingly used for data base in which the information acquired by staff members can be related to one another and stored. Principles of the data base is described in the "Principles of Data Base System", pp 17-48, Toshiryo Uemura, Ohm Co., Ltd.
FIG. 10 shows a block diagram for a business monitoring and supporting system configured on the basis of the typical data base. It comprises a basic information system 1000 for performing a variety of businesses, a communication controller 1100 for controlling communication between the basic information system 1000 and external workstations, a data base manager 1200 for operating a data base system, a basic data base 2000 for storing business results, a staff work station 3000 to be used by staff members in business, and a communication line 5000 for connecting the basic information system 1000 with the external work station.
In the prior art, a transaction transmitted through the communication line 5000 from the staff work station 3000 is processed through the communication controller 1100 in the basic information system 1000 and sent to the data base manager 1200. The data base manager 1200 accesses the basic data base 2000 for a result. The result is returned from the communication controller 1100 back to the staff work station 3000.
The system shown in FIG. 10 has a transaction input from the staff work station 3000 and processed in the data base manager 1200. The processed result is returned back to the staff work station 3000 as in the prior art.
FIG. 11 shows a block diagram for an example of prior business monitoring and supporting system built up on the basis of the system in FIG. 10. This example is a system that allows for message processes related to orders from sales shops.
The prior system comprises a basic information system 1 for processing data of a variety of businesses, a staff system 2 used for business processes by staff, another party's system 4 which is an inventory control system of another company, an inventory retrieving apparatus 12 for checking goods for presence, an inventory data base 13 (hereinafter referred to as the "inventory DB") for storing inventory information, communication controller 18 for controlling communication with external systems, another party's basic control system 41 for business processing with use of other party's system, inventory retrieving apparatus 42 for checking goods for presence with use of the other party's system, an inventory data base 43 (hereinafter referred to as the "other party's inventory DB") for storing inventory information related to the other party, a controller 67 for controlling the inventory retrieving apparatus 12, the communication controller 18, and similar units, a communication line 61 for connecting the basic information system 1 with the external system, and a staff system terminal 29 to be operated by the staff.
The basic information system 1 and the staff system 2 are included in an organization, for example, a company, and the other party's system 4 is in another organization, for example, another company.
The staff can issue a transaction for requesting inventory retrieval from the staff system terminal 29 to time basic information system 1. The communication controller 18 of the basic information system 1 can receive the transaction. The controller 67 sends it to the inventory retrieving apparatus 12. The inventory retrieving apparatus 12 retrieves the inventory data base 13 to check goods required for presence. The controller 67 sends the results to the communication controller 18.
If the requested goods are stocked, the controller 67 returns confirmation of the presence of goods through the communication controller 18 and at the same time, sends a transaction to the staff system 2 asking for confirmation whether the goods are to be provided.
In the prior example, when an inquiry from a sales shop is to be processed, the flow of business processes such as provision for inventory and order of goods to a manufacturer for no provisions is partly automated with respect to inventory control, for example. The remaining processes are decided by staff in a head office of a sales company.
The prior art achieves all information control with use of the data base system as shown in FIG. 11 as a business monitoring and supporting system.
However, in FIG. 11, the following case may occur as an example. If goods are not stocked, it may be desirable that the goods already reserved by another user be delivered to an important customer on a date he desires. Such a decision is usually made by a supervisor of the staff in charge or an executive of the company if the order is important. It is therefore desirable that the supervisor conceive all the contents of processes of the staff so that he can make the decision. This however is difficult. It is also not possible for the supervisor and executive, who are generally busy, to check such a task even if their business is interrupted at the time of occurrence of a business process transaction.
There is the following problem specific to inquiry business. A need for shorter delivery has increased in recent years. To satisfy this need, inventory retrieval should be made at a high speed in a method, for example, where a sales man can inquire in real time to the inventory DB of the head office and those of other related companies, such as manufacturers and sales companies, as well. This method involves an organizational problem. The other companies strictly control their inventories. It is the problem of security when the inventories are retrieved or reserved for order by people of other companies. Further, there may be cases where good sellers should be provided with future orders from the company's customers without distributing to other companies, even if they are stocked and not reserved.
For these reasons, problems are caused in the method when direct retrieval of the other company's DB is made, or a transaction is issued to the other company's DB even if it is made by subsidiary companies
Items desired to be reported from the staff to the supervisor may vary with a change of business situation, for example, when a new noticeable product is announced. In that event, the supervisor has a heavy burden as he has to account for the changes among a number of staff members whenever the change happens.
Also, the staff generally cannot understand the intention of the supervisor depending on the contents of a direction. As a result, no report may be given to the supervisor, or wrong reports may be prepared for him. These prevent the supervisor from proceeding with his work.